Phillips 66: An Energy Stock With Benefits

What's true for people and businesses is also true for stocks: It helps to be born in the right place at the right time.

Oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips (ticker: COP) spent years building an energy business to compete with the likes of ExxonMobil (XOM) and Chevron (CVX). The goal was integration: Get the oil from the ground, refine it and sell fuel at gas stations. The result made commodity-price fluctuations less noticeable, but...